The U.S. Department of Energy conducts the Solar Decathlon competition as a student-based achievement that encourages sustainable design with energy efficiency and solar energy technologies. In the 2020 competition, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) team designed, fabricated, and constructed a net-zero modular house that applies innovative and highly efficient building technologies. This paper focused on the lessons learned during the early phases of this ongoing modular project. The research methodology included obtaining feedback from key project participants using a well-structured questionnaire. The results showed that the major items/challenges in the project's planning phase included selecting the modular size, planning the construction system, planning the materials and procurement, estimating costs and duration, selecting a fabricator, collaboration and communication, safety, and planning module transportation. These findings will help modular practitioners and future Solar Decathlon competition participants better understand how and what factors they should consider most during the early phases through the lessons learned.
The authors express their gratitude to the interviewees who donated their time to this study. In particular, the authors thank Gayathri Melaedvattil, a former graduate assistant at UNLV, for collecting initial data for this paper; and Rick A. Hurt, project manager of the project, for his support. The authors also thank UNLV's Solar Decathlon 2020 team and UNLV Design+Build Studio members for their excellent work and success in their competition.